Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Sarah from Confessions of a fabric addict made this super darling Dr. Suess quilt. LOVE IT. Go check out Sarah's blog, fun stuff...This story is really sweet, the quilt is made for a sweet 2 year old with leukemia...read more here...

Some of you may have seen the teaser of the Dr. Seuss quilt I showed earlier this week. I promised a full post about that quilt, and here it is!

This quilt has an interesting story. Last Tuesday in my blogpost I happened to mention in passing that I had received a request for a quilt for a 2-year old girl who had just been diagnosed with leukemia, and that I was off to look for the perfect toddler fabric. Not long after that, I received an e-mail from Cathy at Wondrous Woven Fabrics saying that she would send me some Dr. Seuss fat quarters for this quilt. Wow! Friday rolls around, and there's a lovely squishie in the mail, with Dr. Seuss fat quarters and some solids from Cathy's stash!

Using Crazy Quilt Mom's Fair & Square pattern and adapting it a little bit to make it square, I paired the Dr. Seuss prints with Kona Snow to make the front of this quilt. By the way, this pattern works up really quickly, both cutting and sewing - great for a quick gift!!

Then came the back. I still had large pieces of the Dr. Seuss fabrics left, so I cut 10 1/2" squares, working in some orange, green and yellow from my stash to fill out the spaces.

I love this back - it's so bright and cheerful, and very different from the front. Really gives two quilts for one!!

Then on to quilting....... Because of the way this quilt is laid out, I had to think creatively! I wasn't sure I was happy with the starkness of the white, so I pulled some shiny caribbean blue thread out of my stash and quilted in the white strips and squares. Those ended up being mostly vertical stitching lines. After doing that, I liked the look, but wasn't sure that it had enough quilting to stand up under lots of use, so I threaded white into the machine and did cross-wise organic lines. I think it really gives it a Dr. Seuss-y look, don't you?

My granddaughter saw this quilt after it was done and immediately started picking out her favorite Dr. Seuss characters. She was very concerned about where this quilt was going and asked me lots of questions about the little girl in the hospital. From her reaction, I think this quilt will be a big hit with its recipient! I just hope it brings a little brightness and comfort into her day...... ;-)

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

This will be the last link up for the year. We are taking next week off to enjoy the holiday's. So this is it! Get your projects up!

We have had a ton of fun with Fabric Tuesday. Thanks so much for linking up. When we first started Fabric Tuesday's 17 weeks ago, we were so afraid we would have to email our our mom and sister and a few crafty friends and beg them to join up so we have some link ups, but who needs them? You guys have been so supportive and great. We LOVE the inspiration we get each and every week from looking at all your projects. Keep em coming!

I decided to feature some Christmas projects from last week. Here are just a few...

Link up a recent craft project that uses fabric...if you're new don't be shy! This is for everyone. Click the button to add your link at the bottom and link up a recent blog post where you used fabric to create or enhance something.Below are a few "rules" to play.

Mention us in your post with either a link or make it easy and add the button to your blog sidebar and you won't have to remember each week. ***You can take either our blog or our Fabric Tuesday buttons on the sidebar.***

You don't have to do this to link up, promise. However if you want to follow us, we follow back :) But please comment telling us you did so and we will hop right on over and make sure we're following too!

And how about we each take time to comment on the link just before yours, that's easy enough right? We'd love for this to be a linky party where everyone gets comments, so if you take the time to look, take a second to leave a comment!

Monday, December 20, 2010

And which follower is this? Tonya Rhine! I am so excited because by choosing from one of our followers we know that the winner is a reader...so fun. One other winner is on shown Fresh Poppy Design...

Today we've got Corey from Little Miss Shabby. Have you checked out her site before? So cute and creative. She's got giveaways and cute tutorials...check out this cute strashbuster block. I saw this quilt of hers and I just really wanted to share it with all of you. And she said yes :)

I had a bit of a bee in my bonnet a couple weeks ago. I was just itching to try out an idea that I had and dig into my Dream On charm pack. Urban Chiks fabrics are just beautiful and this new line is no exception. I sat down at about 8pm on a Friday evening and pieced the top--I wanted to try a little "raggy windowpane" idea that I just couldn't get out of my head. The skinny little white strips are all raw edges and will fray just a bit more each time I wash this little quilt. They are 1/2" strips attached (just down the middle of the strip) after the 4 patch blocks were made.

The Saturday after making the top I made my lovely little quilt sandwich--it was small enough I got away (just barely) with only using temporary spray adhesive to baste the layers. I quilted using straight lines in a random "plaid" pattern which I marked off before machine quilting. I haven't done a lot of machine quilting so this was a great opportunity to try it out a bit more.

The quilt is small--I'm not sure of the dimensions off the top of my head but I only used one charm pack and some solid white yardage--it's about crib sized or so. I opted to use a Heather Bailey chevron stripe fabric from Pop Garden for the binding. Since the Dream On yardage wasn't available when I made the quilt. I thought it worked nicely & had the same sort of feel as the rest of the quilt.

I also got to try out my math skills a bit trying to figure out what size squares to cut for the triangles around the outside edge. If you are ever in this same dilemma here is a wonderful resource for figuring out setting and/or corner triangles when you are setting your quilt on point. I don't know if I have ever been quite so excited to figure something out--I even had to call my mom and share my news. For some reason, Ryan, my husband, just wasn't quite as excited. LOL! =)

If you get a chance to pick up some of this delish fabric you won't regret it. The line is now available to purchase.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Hi all, I know it is a bold move to go and post a project less than 24 hours after Megan's award winning quilt. (well I think she should have won an award...) However, no awards have technically been issued yet, but enough with the technicalities...

I apologize about the poor photos, but crafting into the wee hours of night means no natural light, so i had to use the camera flash, which means crappy photos...

create whatever size you want. The little twister works on 5" charm squares, or you can buy a 10" layer cake twister tool...

You do this all over the quilt...

It is pretty easy to see how to twist it together once you get going, but I did sew each time I cut a row so as not to get lost and confused...(which happens to me often...sad!)

Does it look like I spent hours using a template? (Don't say so if it doesn't)

I just did some diagonal straight line quilting, and it is done!

Top her off with some glittery garland, cake stand and an arrogant dear and you are sure to have a cute table topper that your 18 month old will destroy within 24 hours. But it sure was cute for that 24 hours!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

The quilt is made entirely of Half Square Triangles. I am very pleased with how it turned out! It is a Christmas gift, I can't wait to tie a bow around it :)

I straight-line quilted it. It created a cool pattern that I wasn't expecting, see those four squares? I love it! I stitched about 1/2" on each side of each of the large outer squares.

I don't particularly love the backing (especially seeing it held up like this), but it is cool how you can see the design on the white.

﻿

I went with the picnic plaid for the binding. At first I thought because the background was white that it wouldn't stand out enough for me, but I think it compliments the style of the quilt. It definitely is contrasting, but it doesn't pop, which I think is great for this colorway.

I put this on my baby almost 2 year old {major sigh} and he seriously said "cheese!". Seriously Ollie!! So stinking cute.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A few weeks ago I got this magnificent set of fabric in my mailbox from SkyeReve fabrics

It is from Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet 2. Love this fabric line! I am behind on my plans for it, it was supposed to be a gift for Christmas, guess that person will be getting a giant Hershey kiss, because this is not going to get done!

Anyhow, SkyeReve has an awesome Etsy shop. She has 100% positive with thousands of sales. Lots of fun and unique prints too! Go check her out.

I will keep everyone posted on my project~ I should have a cute project to show you in January with it.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

In the next few weeks and months Heather and I have planned to make this site not only a great place to share finished quilts and stories, but also a place to learn and be inspired. We'll be sharing block and quilt tutorials and beef up our sidebars so you can easily search our site!

Also...don't forget the giveaway is still going on. If you're not a follower already, what's the hold up?? :) We're giving a stash of fabric away to one of our followers through Friday (go here to see more). So if you already follow us, you're entered! If you follow us some other way, make sure to take a second and click on the official FOLLOW button on the side. :)

Remember this lovely fabric I showed you a few weeks back? Well I'm using it today in a tutorial. The fabric is from Fabric Shoppe, a great place on Etsy to find tons and tons of designers. She offers express shipping for Christmas AND the amazing $1 Fat Quarter...have you stopped by yet??

Today's tutorial is a simple pinwheel block! It is a photo tutorial, so if there is something I missed or didn't explain correctly, please let me know. In the next week or so I'll be showing a new quilt tutorial where pinwheels will be used, so stay tuned.

PRESS OPEN

It's time forFABRIC TUESDAY

week 16

Link up a recent craft project that uses fabric...if you're new don't be shy! This is for everyone. Click the button to add your link at the bottom and link up a recent blog post where you used fabric to create or enhance something.Below are a few "rules" to play.

Mention us in your post with either a link or make it easy and add the button to your blog sidebar and you won't have to remember each week. ***You can take either our blog or our Fabric Tuesday buttons on the sidebar.***

You don't have to do this to link up, promise. However if you want to follow us, we follow back :) But please comment telling us you did so and we will hop right on over and make sure we're following too!

And how about we each take time to comment on the link just before yours, that's easy enough right? We'd love for this to be a linky party where everyone gets comments, so if you take the time to look, take a second to leave a comment!

New thing! Just so you know you can link up multiple posts!

Now we've got a new linky service, the other one pulled a fast one on us! Hopefully there aren't any issues with this one. But just to make sure, I linked up my stockings :)